The Genus Herpetosiphon

The Herpetosiphon species are aerobic, chemoorganotrophic, filamentous bacteria that are Gram negative but do not have a typical Gram negative cell wall. The filaments are very long, unbranched, and multicellular, between 0.5 µm and 1.5 µm wide and usually 100 µm to more than 1200 µm long (Fig. 1). Short transparent sections (“sleeves”; Fig. 2) are seen at the ends of many filaments.

Van den Eynde, H., E. Stackebrandt, and R. de Wachter. 1987 The structure of the 5S ribosomal RNA of a member of the phylum of green non-sulfur bacteria and relatives FEBS Lett. 213 302–303Google Scholar